My dog is suddenly scared of men. How can I help his fearful behavior?

Question

Conan has recently been being suspicious and afraid of random men. Sometimes young guys, sometimes older. They don’t have anything in common that I could tell. He’ll sometimes be walking and all of a sudden he’ll get between me and a strange man or boy, and “ruff” softly every few seconds, then when we’ve passed them he’ll twist around to keep his eye on them. I’m afraid people will think he’s being aggressive. (He’s NEVER bitten or attacked though) What is the problem, and how can I solve it?? Pet's info: Dog | Irish Setter | Male | neutered | 10 months and 17 days old | 53 lbs

C. Rathjens, DVM · Accepted Answer

First of all, well done on noticing this and realizing you need to take some action to avoid problems in the future. It's pretty common for dogs Conan's age to start showing signs of being fearful - when they are puppies they just deal with being nervous about some situations and as they get closer to adulthood they start to use aggression to ward off scary things. So Conan could definitely work up to biting someone if he continues to be fearful. The most helpful thing would be to start working with a good trainer and/or veterinary behaviorist. You want to use positive only techniques. If that's not possible, you can try to work on this on your own by asking random men to drop him treats and dropped treats whenever you walk past a male on the street.

My dog is suddenly scared of men. How can I help his fearful behavior?

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